I’m well aware that Mother’s Day is not until May 11th, but children should know that it is not the only day we pay tribute to mothers.

In the context of the Filipino Easter tradition, we pay homage to mothers as we observe an Easter dawn celebration known as the "Salubong," which literally means an encounter, the meeting between the Risen Christ and His anguished mother which is enacted in church patios in the Philippines, and in some parishes here in the United States. As the statue of a shrouded lady, Our Lady of Dolours, crosses the path of her Resurrected Son, an angel descends and lifts the black veil that wraps the grieving mother. When Mother meets Son, there is untold joy and exaltation and hymns like "Alleluia" and "Regina Coeli" soar to the heavens, sung by a choir of angels and echoed by the faithful in procession.

The "Salubong" also pays homage to all the mothers, many of whom have experienced the heartache of losing young children, before their time, to illness or violence. And as we pay tribute to mothers, we think of the children who have lost their mothers, before their time, to poverty, oppression and gross injustice.

The centuries-old "Salubong" is not celebrated here in exactly